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James Aspevig

Assistant Professor, HCI

Mr. Jim Aspevig recieved his Bachelor of Arts in Biology/Chemistry from Concordia College, Moorhead, MN, in 1985, and his Master of Science in Microbiology from the University of Montana, Missoula, MT, in 1989. In 2006, he received his Master of Public Health/Informatics from the University of Illinois in Chicago.

After graduating with his Masters Degree in Microbiology Jim worked as a Medical Technologist for five years.

In 1995, Jim left clinical microbilogy and took a position with the Montana State Immunization program as "Immunization Action Plan Coordinator" . Development has culminated in the current, web-based Statewide Immunization Registry which is available to any physician's office with an Internet connection. The Statewide Immunization Registry currently represents one of the largest functioning Health Information Exchanges in the State of Montana with over 12,000 client records and more than one million rows of Vaccination data.

Branching off of his experience with Immunization Registries, Jim was asked to implement a proprietary e-mail system to link State, local and national Family Planning programs across Montana in 1998 and, in 1999, Jim was given the responsibility of implementing Internet connectivity and a statewide electronic communications system for all local County Health Departments in Montana as part of national Health Alert Network (HAN) program sponsored by CDC. When the HAN program began in late 1999, only 3 of 50 County Health Agencies had Internet connectivity. By early 2003 all local County Health Agencies in Montana had e-mail capability and affordable high-speed Internet connectivity.

In late 2002 Jim assumed management of the Public Health Informatics Section in the newly formed Public Health Systems Improvement & Preparedness Bureau of the Montana State Health Agency. The mission of the Public Health Informatics Section was to assist other State and local public health programs in the selection of emerging technologies that conformed to the federal PHIN (Public Health Information Network) standards and to promote the effective use of new technologies at the State and local levels in Montana. At the federal level the PHIN initiative is the public-sector component of the National Health Information Infrastructure (NHII) which is pressing to make the electronic medical record widely available by 2014.